Free Jacob's Ladder by Z. A. Maxfield Page A

crossed my legs and leaned back on my hands, completely relaxed for the first time in days. “I like it here; it"s the town that time forgot.”
    “I was born here.”
    “Yeah?” I asked. “You"ve never lived anywhere else?”
    “No.” She rolled her eyes. “St. Nacho"s is really small and all, but I think I belong here. The place is an ancient source of power actually, although not everybody knows that.”
    “Right.” I rolled my eyes.
    “Laugh all you want, but Minerva at Rune Nation says that the local Indian tribe put a spell on this land so people would pass it by.”
    “Ruination?” Muse charmed me, but it was hard to keep up.
    “ Rune Nation ,” she repeated. “It"s my favorite bookstore. They sell books and crystals and herbs. Stuff like that.”
    “I see. And this Minerva?”
    “She owns the store. Anyway, she says that unless St. Nacho"s wants you here, you won"t even see it.”
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    Z. A. Maxfield
    “Ah.” I rolled over onto my stomach and rested my head in my hands so I could just watch the waves. It"s funny how when you"re doing that, you realize you don"t do it nearly enough. “That"s kind of cool. How old are you, Muse?”
    “I"m nineteen.”
    “That seems very young to me.”
    “Does it? I guess so.” Muse sat for a while in silence, but I thought it was killing her. She didn"t seem the type. “How old are you?”
    “I"m thirty-two. Well. I"ll be thirty-two in August.” I probed that spot in my psyche and didn"t discover any issues. Thirty hadn"t been hard on me, not like some of the guys I knew from clubs who built their lives around being young and cool.
    “What about your guy?” she asked, staring straight ahead.
    “What about him?”
    Muse met my eyes. “Where is he? How"d you end up here? What"s going to happen? Will you go back?” I think even she was surprised by the barrage of questions once she"d asked them, because she went back to staring at the water.
    “I don"t know the answers to any of those questions.” I thought about it. “I know how I ended up here. I got kicked off the bus.”
    “That must mean St. Nacho"s wants you.”
    “I"m sure it does,” I said drily. “Everyone wants me.”
    “Are you going to go back to your guy? When you leave, I mean.”
    “No,” I told her. “I"m pretty sure that ship sailed a long time ago, but I just didn"t notice. I"m not standing on the dock waving.”
    “Did you love him?”
    “No.”
    “Oh.” Her voice was small.
    “What about your…?” Before I finished that sentence, I realized it probably wasn"t any of my business.
    “I went out with this guy in high school, and it was one of those dark, passionate teen things. I guess I"m drawn to that.”
    “No kidding,” I teased. When I realized maybe it hit a little too close to home, I added, “Me too, really.”
    “I see.” She gave that some thought. “I think maybe we just hit the trifecta. My dad beat on my mom, his dad hit his stepmom and all the kids, and we were kind of alienated socially at school. We found each other, and it was like coming home.”
    “You never think it"s going to happen to you, do you?”
    “Nope.”
    “I remember lying awake at night, chanting over and over again that I"d never be like that. At the time I thought the worst thing in the world would be to be like my dad. It never once occurred to me I"d be like my mom…” St. Nacho’s 3: Jacob’s Ladder
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    Muse nodded. “I used to hear them screaming at each other and think, just hit him the fuck back. Show him you won"t take that shit lying down. That"ll stop it.” I glanced at Muse"s profile. “Did you try it?”
    She looked down. “Yep.”
    “Did that work?”
    “Nope.”
    “Shit.”
    “One good thing was that the first time I came home with a black eye, my mom packed our things and moved us out of my dad"s house. They"re divorced now.”
    “It took you getting hit by your boyfriend?”
    “That it did. And now she runs the group.”
    “Alice is your mom?” I